Cold triggers respiratory diseases 50% in Mexico
The cold wave registered in the last weeks in Mexico shot up respiratory diseases by 50 percent in relation to 2022, according to official data from the Health Secretary.
According to the weekly report prepared by the General Directorate of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health, during the first week of 2023 459,618 cases were registered for acute respiratory infectionsan increase of a little more than 50 percent compared to last year, when the fourth wave of covid in the country occupied priority in diagnoses.
In the last week there were registered 32,185 new infectionsa trend that has not stopped growing in recent weeks, compared to the last week of the year, when 25,170 cases were registered.
Cold, main cause of increase in respiratory diseases
Respiratory diseases increase in Mexico due to cold
On the subject, Mauricio Rodríguez Álvarez, professor of virology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), The rebound, among other factors, has to do with the cold fronts that have hit the country in recent weeks and have left minimum temperatures between -5º and 0º Celsius in some points, such as the mountains of Baja California, Sonora and Chihuahua.
The professor added that flu, colds and infections such as sinusitis or otitis, which now appear every year on these dates together with the well-known influenza and Covid-19.
Rodríguez Álvarez considers that the increase in the figures in respiratory infections may also be due to a lack of diagnosis of new cases of Covid and its variants.
Thanks to vaccination, which according to official figures covers 84% of the population, society has lost its fear or perhaps the “urgency”, as the doctor mentions, to find out if you have coronavirus since prevention and care measures are similar quite like a flu.
“The general perception of the population is that it is a problem that is not as serious as a few years ago and that also means that people no longer seek a diagnosis, so it is very likely that there is a huge underreporting of cases,” he explains. the specialist.
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According to the virologist, one out of every two Covid-19 tests that are currently being carried out is positive, which means 50 percent of the results.
As we have mentioned in other informative notes of The Truth NewsUnlike other diseases, pneumonia and bronchopneumonia have dropped 13 percent compared to last year, from 123,206 cases to 106,677 infections.
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